Retention Policies
Overview
Retention rules control how long archived messages are kept before they are automatically deleted. You configure them on the Admin > Rules page alongside exclusion rules. See Rules and Filters for details on creating and managing rules.
How retention works
Every tenant has a default retention rule. It applies to any message that is not matched by a more specific retention rule. You can change the default retention period, but you cannot delete the default rule itself.
The retention period is specified in days. Setting it to 0 means messages are kept forever.
If you create additional retention rules with conditions (sender, domain, attachment status, etc.), they are evaluated top to bottom. The first matching rule determines how long a message is kept. Messages that do not match any specific rule fall through to the default.
Once a message exceeds its retention period, it becomes eligible for automatic cleanup. The cleanup process runs on a schedule and removes expired messages from encrypted storage, deletes their metadata, and logs the deletion in the audit trail.
GoBD compliance
German tax and commercial law (GoBD, HGB, AO) typically requires businesses to retain correspondence for 6 or 10 years depending on the document type:
- 6 years for general business correspondence (HGB §257)
- 10 years for tax-relevant documents, invoices, and accounting records (AO §147)
If you set a retention period shorter than 10 years (3,650 days), the app shows a warning and asks you to acknowledge the compliance risk before saving.
Legal hold
Legal hold prevents specific messages from being deleted, regardless of their retention period. This is used when litigation is pending or anticipated.
When a legal hold is placed on a message:
- The message is excluded from automatic retention cleanup
- The message cannot be deleted manually
- A visual indicator shows the hold status in the message view
- The audit log records who placed the hold and when
Administrators can manage legal holds from the Admin > Legal Hold page. Only administrators can place or remove holds.